So of course the Hockey season started a few months ago, and despite a rough start for our very own Montréal Canadians, the Habs are starting to shape up beautifully, as they are snatching last minute wins from some very tough teams. Unlike last year’s Diva roster when everyone played for their own glory, this year and with the absence of superstars like Kovalev, Koivu, and Tanguay, the players who happen to be a bit less talented and less “expensive”, are all on the ice rink to play for the team and to try and win it for one another (and for us of course).
What’s also very different this season, is that finally and unlike previous years, my favorite player, who in my modest opinion is the most useful player on the team, is finally getting the credit he so deserves. For the past two weeks, the extremely hard working Tomas Plekanec is being described and talked about as being the most important player on the team. They finally recognized his true worth and gave credit to his contributions on the team; the team that is truly the pride of the city of Montréal, and every Montréaler.
I hate it when shy players, and players who don’t bitch and nag on every interview, fall into oblivion, while only superstar players are hovered over by the media. However for the past two or three weeks, every hockey related article I’ve read and every hockey related TV debate I’ve watched, did not fail to mention that the #14 Czech player with the Montréal Canadians, has been the best player on the team so far, and that since he plays as a center on the 2nd trio, he has been left alone most of the time with no one to support him and finish his smart and wicked passes... And that’s something I have been saying and repeating for the past 3 years. The experts are very late, but you know what? Better late than never; I am happy.
“Tomas Plekanec, un hero obscur” said one paper: … il n’est certainement pas le joueur le plus populaire, le plus en vue, ou le mieux payé chez le Canadien… il est cependant l’un des plus utiles…” translation (mine): he is certainly not the most popular player, or the one with the most media exposure, nor is he the most paid, but he is certainly one of the most useful players for the Canadians.
Even the CH’s coach Jacques Martin mentioned him more than once in the past two weeks: “He never complains even if he plays with different trio players every game. He is an extremely versatile player and a very important one to our team – a key player dotted with unbelievable skills to adapt to each and every situation. He is even able to make his teammates look good and score goals…”
I would also like to add that lately, Plekanec has been doing almost everything on this ice rink. He has been passing the puck, scoring goals, defending fiercely and even fighting his own battles, which, because of his small posture, is really not his job to begin with…
Kudos to you Pleky, I hope you finish the season marvelously and without injuries. Keep up the good work and I will keep rooting for you… (That’s me in the photo by the way).
Here’s a beautiful tube of an amazing play he did last week. He took the puck from behind the own net and skated through 4 big players, only to deliver a beautiful calculated assist to his teammate to score, and win the game in overtime… of course that night, the credit went to Hamrlik the goal scorer… even the title of the tube is evidence of that…
Some people may say while admiring the result of a Holga:
- But all you do is press on that button... Then you wait while totally relying on the vulnerability of the plastic box to do the work for you, and deliver the “art” such as you would like to call it. You're totally dependent.
- Symbiosis.
- Pardon?
- I think it is more a symbiotic relationship, rather than total dependence.
Sure the machine deserves a lot of credit for delivering the final representation, but you also have to be there, and you have to know what you’re doing. You have to kind of imagine and anticipate the final outcome of the photograph, in order for it to be as close to perfection as you would like it to be. If you leave it to the camera, the result would be totally random... after all it is plastic.
In order to master it, you really have to foresee it. A lot of trial and error will train you to see and read the future photograph or the photograph to be, and then mentally relay the information to your system so that the camera can "capture" your desires. Because I mean in order for you to get a satisfactory result you have to be there; you have to really be there at the right moment and at the right time, at the right angle and at the right light… and then you click!
You have to pose yourself instantaneously all the right questions: Do you hold or do you release quickly? Do you focus or do you move? Do you crank and shoot, or do you go for a double exposure?
These are some of the questions you have to pose and answer yourself almost immediately. And then you can “rely” on the plastic lens to execute them while adding a bit of its mysterious quirkiness, and theatrical subjectivity.
Symbiosis is the art of interaction and partnership, which to me, better describes the relationship of photographers with their Holga.
This has been the longest I have been away from blogging – writing, reading and communicating with fellow bloggers. It has also been the longest I have ever been from any form of “artistic” manifestation. That is not true actually, I have been taking a lot of photographs, but as always I never get around on doing anything with them, so I disregard any importance to that issue. They just get stored with their siblings on my hard drive.
I blame it (as always) on lack of inspiration, and time (lack of), but with everything happening in this world and with the abundance of material to talk about, I should have no excuse.
Truth be told though, I have been doing a lot of traveling; inside and outside of Canada, that I just had other outlets to communicate with people. And it has been both enriching and overwhelming at some points, that self-satisfaction is attained but never shared. Which is okay I guess…
I also chose a bad time to write again as I leave to Peru in the few days to come, but I guess any time is as good as any. I leave on Saturday to be part of a humanitarian mission operating in the slums of Lima. We will be stationed there for about two weeks working with optometrists, tending to Lima’s poor and “humbler” inhabitants. I will try to blog as of there, and post on the flaneur. I know I always say that, but this time if I have Internet access, I am going to have to; I am expected to, by the mission organizers. I will let you know though. I will update here as soon as I start posting on the travel blog. Our two-week mission is supposed to be intense and draining, as we are scheduled to see about 700 patients every day, but on the other hand, I am also positive that it is going to be an unequaled enriching experience.
Wish me luck.
PS: the object photographed [la goutte d'eau] is by Michèle Lapointe | Artiste.
I will be leaving to Shanghai for work, and will be there for about 3 weeks. The last I checked (and heard), urban_memories was blocked by the Chinese government. If it is still the case, this will explain my absence; otherwise, I will try to write updates whenever I can. _z.
2009 / Mont Royal, Montréal / Canon Powershot SD750
For a while now, I have been struggling with the idea of originality in the design world. Everything seems a bit banal and many times predictable. I don’t know if it is still possible to see innovative and totally original masterpieces. We may have to get used to seeing copies with transformation and mutations.
It is shame, and I am sure we are all trying hard to evade this unconscious “inspiration”, but it is almost impossible. With that many images stored in our memory, and with the Internet as vehicle, information multiplies exponentially and is put at our disposition at any time.
It is almost as if what we know is what we see; what we can create is already there.
I say almost, because I would like to keep a margin for error, and for hope that I am wrong and we still can create, design and innovate.
Here’s what Jim Jarmusch has to say about that. what do you think?
"Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to."
"We all know kids have boundless amounts of energy and a need to play - so why not channel some of that energy into much needed rural infrastructure? That was the brilliant idea behind the PlayPump: a humanitarian design project that consists of a water pump hooked up to a small village merry-go-round. Access to clean drinking water is a huge concern in developing regions of the world, and now the PlayPump system is bringing clean water into the hardest hit regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, where it has been installed in rural villages and primary schools, so that kids can have fun while pumping all the clean, potable water that their families need."
I wonder what use is "vivid" and "creative" imagination, if it does not materialize into realizations, and is solely kept to your low profiled, nonchalant, procrastinating mind…
Thoughts have to get out there in any shape or form, and through any media. Otherwise, they will leave you… they don’t belong to you. They are not yours to keep and will not hang around you for ever, so you might as well put them to good use once they are around.
Ideas bless you for a while, and then turn on to become muses for others.
When this intellectual promiscuity is mixed with a severe case of lack of action, it puts an end to originality, and suffocates the seed to any potential unique creation.
Thoughts fly searching for willing-to-act minds…
That's what they do, and you got to respect that. Time is short, and they have got to be fair. In fact imagination is the only thing that is left fair in this world. It belongs to everyone. It is then up to you to materialize the images and the visions - in any modest way - otherwise they will remain dreams.
The whole world is out there, and you’ll be stuck inside your head... the smallest of worlds there is.
---- photo take during a visit to an exhibtion at the CCA - Actions: What You Can Do With the City presents 99 actions that instigate positive change in contemporary cities around the world. Canadian Centre for Architecture, 26 November 2008 - 19 April 2009
After carrying the burden for years and years, I finally decided to organize a big blowout sale.
I will be selling: - my conscience. - my values. - my principles. - my scruples.
If you are interested, please drop me a line. You should also keep in mind that they may be very expensive as they were very dear to me, and still hold a sentimental place in my heart. It really pains me to let them go, but I have to survive and go forth. And it is a lot easier to do so without ethics.
“The world is changed; I can feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth, I smell it in the air, much that once was is lost, for none now live to remember it”
